This invention relates to LCD systems, and more particularly to an LCD display system which incorporates a quick connect/release connector apparatus for enabling an LCD monitor to be electrically and mechanically coupled, simultaneously, to a support member, through a quick and easy sliding movement of the LCD monitor.
LCD monitors have become increasingly popular in a wide variety of applications. Such monitors are lightweight, when compared to CRT type monitors, and therefore much more easily handled by an individual. LCD monitors are often used in applications where two or more monitors are often required, such as in the financial industry, where multiple graphs of information need to be viewed in real time. Multiple monitor applications are also found in use in engineering applications, manufacturing applications, and a wide variety of other applications where a large amount of information needs to be displayed simultaneously for the user(s).
Often such multiple LCD monitor systems are supported on a common arm. The arm is typically held above the worksurface, such as a desk or table, by a vertical column attached to a base. Frequently the need arises to remove one LCD monitor and use it with a separate workstation area. Since LCD monitors are still relatively expensive as compared with CRT monitors, and further attached to a display stand to form a single assembly, it is not possible to easily remove one LCD monitor from a display system and connect it to another workstation where the need for the LCD monitor is more acute. Thus, it is either not possible or highly impractical to disconnect LCD monitors from various work areas and reconnect them at workstations where a particularly acute need for the additional monitor has arisen. The operation of electrically disconnecting the video cable from the LCD monitor, and then mechanically uncoupling the LCD from its support or base (if such was even provided for by the manufacturer of the display system), and then reconnecting the LCD monitor both electrically and mechanically to a different LCD display system and associated computer, would be extremely time consuming and cumbersome.
The lack of a present day means to conveniently electrically and mechanically mount an LCD monitor, removably, on some form of a cooperating docking station thus significantly limits the utility of the monitor by preventing it from being easily removed from use in one application and physically taken by the user to be used in another application. For example, the lack of such a coupling/connector system prevents an LCD monitor used with a computer at a user""s workplace from being easily uncoupled and taken home for use with a home computer. Providing a connector system which would allow quick and easy electrical and mechanically coupling and uncoupling of the LCD monitor would allow it to be easily taken by the user and used wherever it may be needed.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a universal connector apparatus which enables an electrical and mechanical connection to be made, generally simultaneously, between an LCD monitor and a docking station of a supporting member, thus allowing the LCD monitor to be used.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a connector apparatus for an LCD monitor which is relatively inexpensive to produce, lightweight, compact, and which does not require any special tools such as screwdrivers, pliers, etc., to enable an LCD monitor to be uncoupled, both electrically and mechanically, from a support member.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a universal connector apparatus which enables two or more LCD monitors, each having one portion of the connector apparatus, to be electrically and mechanically coupled, and interchanged as needed, to one or more second portions of the connector apparatus. In this manner any number of LCD monitors could be coupled or interchanged as needed to a support member or docking station without any modification to the LCD monitor or the support member/docking station.
The present invention relates to a universal connector apparatus having a first component and a second component. The first component is intended to be fixedly secured to an LCD monitor on an exterior surface thereof, and preferably on a rear or bottom portion of a housing thereof. The second component is a mating component which is intended to be fixedly secured to any form of support member or surface. The first member comprises a housing having an electrical connector, preferably a male connector. The second member comprises a housing in the form of a cup which has a mating electrical connector, and preferably a female connector, fixedly mounted therein.
The housing of the first component further includes an integrally formed protrusion which, in one embodiment, comprises a wedge shaped protrusion. The housing of the second component comprises a recess which is shaped complementarily to the projection on the first component of the connector assembly. Accordingly, when a wedge shaped protrusion is employed, then a similarly sized wedge shaped recess will be employed in the housing of the second component.
The electrical connector component mounted within the housing of the second component is preferably mounted at the bottom of the recess. When the projection of the first component is slidably inserted into the recess of the second component, both a mechanical and an electrical connection are made almost simultaneously. If a wedge shaped projection and recess is employed, the wedge shape provides the added benefit of automatically aligning the male and female electrical connectors as they are slid into mating engagement with one another.
It will be appreciated that the two piece connector apparatus described above can be used in a wide variety of applications, such as within vehicles, on wall mounted monitor support arms, directly on walls, or wherever desired. The only limitation is that the surface that the second component is attached to has sufficient area and strength to allow the second component to be fixedly attached to it.